Glutinous Rice Balls (Thong Yuen)
By admin on 2015-01-30

‘Thong Yuen’ are little coloured balls made from glutinous rice flour and a pinch of food colouring. Usually eaten on the 22 December every year, this deliciously refreshing cold dessert is never forgotten because it also happens to fall on my niece’s birthday! This year, my mom roped in all her 3 precious grandchildren including the birthday girl to knead these little balls into perfection.

Thong Yuen Recipe

250gm glutinous rice flour

ice cold water

food colouring of your choice

rock sugar

2 pandan leaves                    

Put the glutinous rice flour into a mixing bowl, make a well in the centre.
Pour in the ice water a little at a time until the flour takes on a doughy texture. (Dough must not be too sticky)
Portion the dough out for colouring. White being the largest portion and I leave the rest to your preference, pink, yellow, green and red.
Roll the dough into little balls, the largest like a normal size of a marble and the coloured ones smaller.
Knead every ball at least 3 times to give it a springy texture. Some people like it with filling, some like it soft but I like it chewy! The longer you knead, the chewier it becomes.
Leave all the kneaded balls on a flat platter and cover with cling. Leave at room temperature overnight.
Next, tie the pandan leaves in a knot, put some rock sugar in some filtered water and bring to boil, melting the rock sugar and at the same time infusing the sugar syrup with pandan flavour. Leave syrup to cool before storing in the fridge overnight.
Next morning, bring a saucepan of water to boil and throw in the glutinous rice balls and ladle them out when they float. Immediately, dunk them into a huge bowl of icy cold water for 5 minutes.
Ladle them into a glass bowl, pour some pandan syrup over them and serve with a handful of ice cubes or shaved ice.

To make the whole occassion more interesting, we have put in tiny slips of paper with messages or bible verses written on them, just like fortune cookies. Well, who said ‘thong yuen’ is only a dessert, eh?